2023-08-06 11:25:51
Next Thursday, August 10, it will be exactly 100 years since the most universal Valencian painter, Joaquin Sorolla, died in Cercedilla, in the Sierra de Guadarrama (Madrid). Throughout 2023, numerous exhibitions and activities on the occasion of the so-called Sorolla Year. These initiatives are aimed at remembering life and prolific career of the ‘master of light’: from its origins to its mature stage, going through less studied aspects of its work.
Sorolla left alive more than 4,000 paintings which he began to carry out from his youth, when he trained in the Artisans Schools and in the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Carlos. Determinant were his trips to Rome -a scholarship recipient from the Provincial Council of Valencia– and to Paris, where he would drink from the impressionists and naturalists. Despite his eagerness to internationalize, Sorolla returned whenever he could to Valencia, his ‘muse’, and whose light permeated most of his works. With the permission of his other inspiration: his wife Clotilde, whom he revered, as can be read in the letters he sent her when he was away from the family home in Madrid.
Sorolla was a tireless traveler. He visited Europe, Spain and the United States, where he triumphed in several cities, including bustling New York. There they exhibit his most mammoth work: The panels of “Vision of Spain”a commission for the Hispanic Society, which he left his health to the limit until he died in 1923. We review some of his vital moments through his works.
The cry of the haymaker. 1884
Joaquín Sorolla painted this painting when he was 21 years old to apply for a scholarship from the Diputación de Valencia in Rome. The historical theme is not one of the most common in the production of the Valencian artist, but it was required to achieve the pensioner. The provincial corporation granted him the first chance of him as a young painter. With 3,000 pesetas in the pocket, the young Sorolla went to live in the Italian city, to squeeze an experience that would change his life. The work can be seen at the Palau de la Generalitat.
The burial of Christ. 1887
This work was a failure for the painter. With “The Burial of Christ” (oil on canvas 92 x 62 centimeters) Sorolla obtained the second medal in the National Exhibition of Madrid of 1887. This award did not seem enough to the Valencian painter and he did not hesitate to destroy his creation, which is also one of the few religious scenes he painted. Of it, only a few pieces and previous studies are kept.
sad inheritance. 1899
“Sad inheritance” is one of Sorolla’s most recognized works. With it he obtained the Grand Prix of the Universal Exhibition in Paris in 1900 and meant his national and international consecration. At first, he thought of naming the work “Children of Pleasure”, but his friend Vicente Blasco Ibáñez recommended that he change it. It forms part of the Bancaja Foundation collection.
My family. 1901
Joaquín Sorolla traveled frequently through Spain and abroad. Despite these absences, the surviving correspondence reveals that he was a very familiar man, who was constantly interested in his wife, Clotilde, and her three children: María, little Joaquín and Elena.
Boy with a hat. Javea. 1905
Joaquín Sorolla traveled to Xàbia on many occasions to seek inspiration, to meet the light of the Mediterranean and its landscapes. the stay Sorolla’s summer in Xàbia in 1905 It was a catalyst for the painter to reach the maturity of his most recognized style. An example is the painting «Boy with hat. Jávea» (above).
Clotilde in a gray suit. 1908
Despite his hectic professional life, which led him to travel constantly, Joaquín Sorolla was always aware of his family, especially Clotilde, his wife, the protagonist of many of his works. More than 2,000 missives were written to in their 35 years of marriage. “You are my meat, my life and my brain”Sorolla wrote to him. “It is seen that God truly united us, because I only dream of being with you, and for you,” she told him in another.
Walk by the sea. 1909
This work is Sorolla in its purest form. The painter portrays here his wife, who carries a parasol in her hand, together with her daughter María de ella. The two stroll carefree along the seashore, on the beach of Valencia. This painting was made in the summer of 1909 after Sorolla’s fourth international exhibition at the beginning of the same year in various cities in the United States.
Boys on the beach. 1910
If something characterizes Joaquín Sorolla, at least in the collective imagination, it is the paintings of the beach and children playing on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. “Boys on the beach” is the best example of this. This work can be seen in the Prado Museum.
Vision of Spain. 1913-19
Sorolla met the American philanthropist and Hispanist Archer Milton Huntington in London, who helped him exhibit in New York. Such was the success in the US that Huntington commissioned him for the Hispanic Society of America the 14 regional panels of “Vision of Spain”which he carried out between 1913 and 1919. This mammoth project had consequences for the health of the painter, who ended up exhausted.
Portrait of Mabel Rick. 1920
The portrait was one of the most popular genres by Sorolla. Mabel Rick’s is of special interest because, a few months after finishing “Visión de España”, in the summer of 1920 Sorolla suffered a hemiplegia while painting it. She was in the garden of her house in the company of the sitter and her husband, the writer Ramón Pérez de Ayala. She died three years later without having painted again.
Bathtime. 1904
Joaquín Sorolla is synonymous with auction house success. The Valencian painter is one of the most requested names in sales around the world. His marine and costumbrist prints are the most requested by collectors. The work “La hora del baño”, sold for 5.3 million euros, has been the most expensive Sorolla in history.
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